A multi million 'no ball' : Innocuous or Shameful?

It's match fixing time again folks! So naturally there will be lots of drama, lots of revelations, lots of twists and turns, lots of shattered fans and last but not the least lots of Pakistan amidst all this. Honestly howsoever shameful and disheartening the latest match fixing saga, or spot fixing as they have termed it this time around, may be, but not many are shocked with the involvement of Pakistani players in this dirt. It has happened before, it is happening consistently and with the state of governance in Pakistan, it won't be farce to say that it will happen in future too. Many Pakistani cricketers have committed graver crimes and have been let off rather easily, no wonder not many are surprised with such brazen acts of impropriety.

But why Pakistan time and again? Either players from other teams are too skillful to get caught or their is something wrong with the grooming and mushrooming of raw talent in Pakistan. Though there is no guarantee with anybody's conscience but one can safely assume that post Azharuddin and Mongia era and in the cash rich environs of IPL, the chances of an Indian player indulging in such acts has minimized to a good extent. But bowling no balls to become a millionaire! Isn't it rather too cheap? Well, if we think of the overall atmosphere in which the Pakistani players are playing these days, it won't appear so cheap. No international cricket being played on their home soil for over 18 months, despite of being the T20 World Champions they don't get a chance to play in the cash rich T20 leagues like IPL,an average Indian cricketer earns more in one season of IPL than his Pakistani counterpart earns in almost a decade. No wonder it breeds an environment where Md Amir is forced to think that ' this damn Malinga guy, not half the cricketer I am and yet he merrily munches on a million bucks every year, so what's the big deal in making some bucks by bowling an innocuous 'no ball' or for that matter makes Md Asif envious of Praveen Kumar who flashes a garish gold chain dancing around his neck every time he comes up to bowl despite not being a patch on him as a bowler, naturally pride and honor can take a back seat and a multi million 'no ball' can do the honors instead.

So does all this converge to a moot point that Cricket today is all about money? You either make it by burning yourself playing non stop cricket or you assimilate it by wrong means. At the face of it, it seems so, but when we think of the cricketers of the class of Tendulkars, Dravids, Kumbles, Gangulys, Laras and Ranatungas, the grace, humility, dedication and integrity with which they have played every single match in their lives, our faith in this beautiful game still remains strong. But certainly such acts of dishonesty which crop up every now and then actually aches million hearts. The recent match fixing fiasco can't be simply treated as a Pakistan centric failure, we are no saints or intolerable marshals of such crimes either. The tendency to forget and forgive is the one which is causing the maximum damage. When the government itself decides to make the tainted cricketer of his time Md Azharuddin as the member of Indian parliament and when other such suspects of the biggest match fixing fiasco of the last decade are making a hefty living out of their new found and well applauded commentary and coaching careers, we can't preach the lessons of integrity and lawfulness to our neighbors. And rather all we are doing is using the lack of legal evidence as the smokescreen to avoid proper accountability.

Such shameful incidents will keeping on happening in the future too and no level of moral policing or extreme punishment can curb them because it eventually boils down to the morality of every individual. Money or no money if the individual is playing the game or pursuing a career for the sole sake of representing his country to the fullest of his integrity, he will always be a trustworthy representative but a(n) Asif otherwise. No wonder if the Commonwealth Games have lost their sheen, it is because the organisers have failed to provide a moral compass to their team. Likewise, if the Delhi Metro, another gigantic government enterprise, has proved remarkably free of sleaze, it is because its chairman is a man who has zero tolerance for corruption. And if Sania Mirza is winning her first round match at the US Open, people are not crediting her for this rare feat but are suspecting Shoaib for this fix:).
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